Ilio Krumins-Beens and Maureen McMahon discuss Kaplan's transition to agile at the BISG Agile Content Development Summit, 3/27/12.

1. KTP transition to Agile
Ilio Krumins-Beens
Maureen McMahon

2. Hi, I’m Ilio.
ilio.krumins-beens@kaplan.com
www.iliokb.com
@iliokbagile

3. MOTIVATION FOR CHANGE
It took
That’s NOT much longer
than I expected!
what I
wanted
Not clear There is too
who is responsible much process
for… and overhead
The product does If it isn’t done now
not have all the there will never be
features another chance
I requested
Photographer: Bridget Coila

4. Satisfaction (Baseline)
Meets
Adaptability Transparent Alignment Productivity Quality Schedule TTM
100
80
60
0 11 0 0
40
4
20
7 0
44 44 46 26 42 19 17
0
-48 -33 -42 -59 -38 -56 -54
-20
-40 -11
-7 -12 -19
-60
-11 -19 -29
-80
-100
Generally Satisfied Completely Satisfied Generally Dissatisfied Completely Dissatisfied

5. Satisfaction (2.5 Months)
Meets
Adaptability Transparent Alignment Productivity Quality Schedule TTM
100
80
60
13
13 11 2
40 11 5
5
20
44 58 47 33 38 44 28
0
-38 -18 -32 -44 -43 -38 -46
-20
-11
-40
-5 -11
-11 -14 -15
-60 -21
-80
-100

6. Satisfaction (5 Months) Meets
Adaptability Transparent Alignment Productivity Quality Schedule TTM
100
80
18 15
18
60 18 15 15
13
40
20
62 68 52 56 64 55 44
0
-18 -12
-2 -21 -21 -18 -24 -38
-20 -2 -2
-9 -9 -6
-40
-6
-60
-80
-100

7. Satisfaction (7 Months) Meets
Adaptability Transparent Alignment Productivity Quality Schedule TTM
100
80
17 14 15
60 18 16
28 28
40
20
47 43 53 58 59 63 53
0
-19 -13 -21 -20 -17 -18 -25
-20
-5 -17 -8 -7 -10 -3
-6
-40
-60
-80
-100

8. -90
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
Productivity
-70
Transparent
Alignment
Quality
-44 -47
Baseline
Adaptability
-54 -55
Schedule
TTM
-75-83
What Changed?
0
10
20
30
50
60
70
80
40
Productivity
Transparent
Alignment
Quality
Adaptability
7 Months Later
Schedule
75 71 71 73 75 78 69
TTM

9. Implemented Dedicated Teams
Central
Pool
15 Cross-Functional Teams
BAs PMs Dev QA
1 2 3 4 5 6
Product 1 2 3
Strategic
Shared Services 1 2 3 4 5 6
Shared Services (IT Ops, DB, etc.,)
Shared Services (ITOps, DB, etc.,)
Production Support

10. Implemented an Iterative Approach
Source: Evanetics

11. Time-To-Market
(In Calendar Days)
2010 2011 (Pre-Agile) 2011 (Agile)
250
200 192
150 140
100
50
27
0

12. IF YOU’RE GOING TO TRY AGILE …

13. Awareness that there is room for improvement
Desire to change
Ability to work in an agile manner
Promote early success to build momentum and get
others to follow
Transfer the impact of agile throughout the
organization so it sticks
Source: Mike Cohn, ADAPTing to Agile for Continued Success, Agile 2010.

14. Think First … and define what success looks like
•Prioritize your stakeholders
•Get a transformation
sponsor
•Agree to what success will
look like
•Create and communicate
your plan
•Baseline current state
•Get external validation and
help
© Black Country History Museum www.blackcountryhistory.org

15. Agile Transition Roadmap as of 10/14/2011
2Q11 3Q11 1Q12 4Q12 4Q13
Phase 1 - Prototype 2 – Transition 3 – Roll Out Agile 4 – Establish 5 – Technical
to Dedicated Management Agile Practices Excellence
Teams (Scrum) Practices Beyond Tech
Features Pilot Agile and • Dedicated Teams • Focused Support for 8 • Performance •Automated
Agile Inspired • Select Product teams Management Regression test
practices on ATA Owners • Product owners tools •Compensation implemented
Fixes, • Comm. Program • Healthy PBL for Tier 3-4 practices •Continuous
Nursing RN • Develop Teams •Integration into integration
OC LSAT 2.5, Assessments • Sync with IMO Budget Cycle •Automated builds
MCAT Catalyst • Healthy PBL for • Dashboard Reporting •Develop Better •Increased
Tier1-2 Teams • Improve Off-shore Product Visioning / deployments to
• Focused support vendor Agility Road mapping production
for 7 teams • Co-locate Teams techniques
• Set up Agile Team
Rooms
Users Grad Apps, Tier 1-3 teams Tier 1-4 Teams Kaplan Execs Tier 1-4 Teams
Nursing, LSAT, and Kaplan Execs General Kaplan Kaplan Execs
Catalyst General Kaplan audience audience General Kaplan
Stakeholders Offshore Vendors Tier 1-4 Teams audience
Offshore Vendors
Tools Jira, Daptiv Jira, Jira, Jira, TBD
Confluence Confluence, Confluence,
PlanetK, PlanetK, PlanetK,
Daptiv, Daptive, Virtual Meeting
Virtual Meeting Tools Tools, Success Factors

16. Eat Your Own Dog Food
Photographer: JnL
Run your transformation effort like an Agile Project

17. Scaling Agile Practices
• Coaching a must
• Get an Expert to help you
• Develop support mechanisms for agile teams
• Tailor after trying base practices
(with expert help)
• Align Roadmaps
• Focus on Technical Excellence that enables
agility
• Collocate Teams (If Possible)
• Extend Agile beyond internal tech teams

18. Thinks to watch out for
• Agile is NOT a panacea
• Watch out for common misconceptions
• We’ll go agile after two day training
• Insufficient depth/competency in the product
owner role
• Waterscrumming, Agile-Fall, Scrumbut,
• Inadequate coordination of vision and delivery
strategies
• Insufficient support / funding for a
transformation effort

19. Implemented the right way, Agile will
leave you satisfied
Photographer: Brain E. Ford

20. Maureen McMahon
EVOLVING AGILE FOR PUBLISHING

23. Agile Initiative at Kaplan Publishing
WORKING NOT WORKING (YET)
Customer focus Comfort level with roles
Ability to adjust plan in response to learning Hard deadlines + strict requirements
Ability to iterate Freezing requirements between sprints
Business/tech collaboration Separate standups not scalable
Organization-wide buy in
Face-to-face communication
Results

24. Thank You!